Colorado 2022
Last week I had the absolute joy of visiting Colorado for the very first time. Earlier this year while I was in Cancun, my sister Hilary and I made plans with her friend Lauren to go visit her in Colorado following her graduation. Since we planned it so early, I had been anticipating the trip for months, and it's safe to say it was everything I dreamed of and more. Here's a brief recap:
June 17
June 17 marked the first day of our trip to Colorado. Hilary and I woke up very early to catch our 6am flight out of DSM and had a blast getting through the airport (as always.) This was mine and Hilary's second time flying together, and I have to say, we're kind of the perfect people to fly with. We are both on the same page about laughing the whole time even though nobody else seemed to want to have fun at 5am, stopping for snacks, peeing multiple times and not paying extra to sit next to eachother. Not that we don't want to sit close, but what's the point in paying 30 more dollars to sit by the person you're going to be spending the next few days with anyway? And we both get to gossip about the strangers we sat by on our way out to baggage claim.
Lauren met us at the airport and greeted us with a hug (she seriously gives the best hugs) then drove us to her lovely home in Denver. On the way back we stopped for coffee and donuts, a total must have, and jammed out to the most ridiculous of tunes.
After relaxing from the flight and eating our breakfast, we packed up our bags, Lauren's boyfriend and her two dogs and headed to the mountain house in Frisco.
When we got up to the mountains we immediately hit the hot tub with our vodka popsicles and started discussing life, dinner plans and the dreaded altitude sickness that had already set in. We decided on Bistro North for dinner to celebrate Lauren's graduation in style.
June 18
Our second day in Colorado started bright and early with a walk to our morning coffee. We took the dogs out on this adventure with us, and even though Hilary and I are total cat people, we had a blast being dog moms for the day.
After our hike to caffeination, we hit up the BBQ Fest that was going on. The fest had BBQ stands everywhere, random food combinations, games and pig races (totally cute if you were wondering.) We hung out at the BBQ Fest for awhile before returning home to chow down on dessert, go on another small hike with the pups and watch countless episodes of Botched.
June 19
Total transparency here— June 19 sucked. There's something about the last full day of a vacation that comes with a lot of pressure to have fun and a lot of sadness realizing that the next day you'll be back in your hometown away from the friend you are visiting. But what do three insane girls do with a bad day? That's right, they make it the best day.
In true Lauren fashion, we ate lunch at a local German spot, Prosit, where I could hardly understand anybody but the food was delicious. Hilary and I even met a couple who were also traveling from Iowa and knew a lot of the same people as we did.
After enjoying our meal, we went out to explore some of Lauren's favorite thrifting shops. We found so many goodies and even had to consider buying second bags to ensure we had enough room on the plan for everything we wanted to bring back.
Once the thrift stores kicked us out (seriously, they closed and we had to agree to come back the next day) we went back home to park ourselves on the couch again for another night of Botched, Intervention, vodka popsicles, desserts and laughing.
June 20
Waking up on June 20 was bittersweet, I was sad to have to leave Colorado and Lauren, but excited to get home to my cat and my bed. We enjoyed one more breakfast together (Lauren makes the best food ever) and spent the morning chatting about life and flipping through the pages of an astrology book.
After we had gotten around for the morning, we returned back to the thrift stores to adequately search the racks with no time constraint. Each of us found multiple items that we absolutely had to have and picked out some pieces that were comical to even think about wearing.
Once we were done shopping, we went back to the mountain house to say our last goodbyes and pack up our things. Surprisingly all of our stuff still fit in our bags (they were heavy) and into the back of Lauren's car. We drove back to Denver and cooped up for a few more hours of Intervention and Escaping Polygamy (we love trash TV if you didn't already get the memo.)
I hope to make it back to Colorado very soon, once Lauren finishes her grand month long trip out of the country. But until then, I'll have to settle for my closer Midwest travel spots.